Novel cellular coil design for improved temperature uniformity in inductive heating of carbon fibre composites

Abstract

Electromagnetic induction has great potential for energy efficient manufacturing of polymer composites. Carbon fibre can be directly heated inductively, achieving rapid, localised, and volumetric heating. The main obstacle to wider adaption of induction in composites processing is the non-uniformity of temperature distribution in-plane and through thickness of composite laminates. This study puts forward a new cellular architecture of the coil and examines the feasibility of addressing the problem of field uniformity. The geometrical parameters of the coil were examined in concurrent modelling and experimental work, aiming at reducing the effect of field cancellation in neighbouring cells and maximising both the coil efficiency and the field uniformity. The paper demonstrates good potential of the new coil designed with significantly improved uniformity of temperature field compared to traditional commercially available coils. This result has been further optimised with parametric finite element analysis to reduce the standard deviation in surface temperature by a further 37%.